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Monthly Archives: February 2017

One powerful collage theme is motivation! But in order to create a motivational theme you first need to write down a goal. Start with a simple goal that relates to something personal that you are working to toward.

For example, I often have freshmen students in beginning art classes create a goal collage on their major. Where do they want to go? Where do they see their selves after graduation.

Consider the following 3 simple steps.

1. Sort and gather images that will motivate you to reach a goal. For example, if you are remodeling your house only gather those images that relate to that process. This would not be the collage that has images of your last birthday party.

2. Think possible not impossible

It is easy to get discouraged when doing your collage if you think about cost and other limitations. Stay focused on your dream. It can happen. That is why you are creating a collage with a goal in mind.

3. Have fun!

Think out of the box. Mix your images with powerful and inspiring words that will help you achieve your goals,

So write out your goals. Start searching for your images and get started.

If you need help doing goal setting I have a great coach for you.

Send an email to cegoals@aol.com. She will work with you to create solid goal statements using the SMART method. That stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and tangible.

And remember you can always contact me for any suggestions on your collage making process.

A Video Screen Splitter is a device which is used to relay images from multiple sources simultaneously on a single display device. Alternatively known as a distribution amplifier, this device transmits images without data loss and it appears as though the source is directly connected to the display. Consisting of two units, a local transmitter placed next to the source and a receiver placed next to the display, this device has the capability of splitting and boosting the signals. Available in 2, 4, 8 and 16 orts, they can also be cascaded or daisy chained together to achieve a greater configuration. Amongst the various models of the screen splitter available in the market, the most common ones are the DVI Splitter, the VGA Audio video splitter, VGA Video, S-Video, Component Video, HDMI Video and Composite Video splitter. All these models are classified on the basis of the video signals that they relay.

Some key features common to all these models are easy installation, plug and play functionality, no requirement of additional software or device drivers and long distance transmission of the video signals while maintaining signal integrity. While the DVI and HDMI splitter are highly demanded models, the most basic one is the VGA splitter.

On the other hand, the Quad Video Splitter is the most innovative device in the KVM industry as it simultaneously displays signals from four analog or digital sources on a single display device. This unit has numerous display modes such as the Quad mode wherein the screen is split into four fields of equal size with each field displaying content from one source respectively. The PIP mode is one in which up to three video sources is displayed as thumbnails on the right hand side of the full screen image. The dual mode allows the left halves of the full screen images from two video sources to be displayed side by side at full size and the full screen mode allows one of the four video sources to be shown at full screen size and maximum resolution.

All the different types of the Video Screen splitter are FCC and CE certified as well as RoHS compliant and allow switching between sources through front panel push buttons and RS232. High end models enable switching through IR and TCP/IP control as well. Ideal for situations where images from various sources need to be replicated on a single screen, they find usage in remote monitoring and surveillance facilities, financial, commercial, educational, government and military environments.

In spite of its popular name, the actual cause of ringworm is infection with fungal organisms. These infectious fungal organisms are called dermatophytes and the medical term for ringworm is dermatophytosis. Sometimes ringworm is also known as tinea. The fungal infectious organisms responsible for causing ringworm are widespread in nature and they commonly populate the soil. The only effective means of preventing the occurrence of ringworm is to maintain a good hygiene. Ringworm is very contagious and it can easily be acquired through direct contact with contaminated people, animals or objects. Regularly wash your hands after entering in contact with stray animals, as many of them are carriers of the fungi responsible for causing ringworms in humans.

Arthrospores are the main cause of ringworm in humans. Although there are lots of animals contaminated with arthrospores, they usually don’t show any signs of the disease. For some reason, most animals appear to be immune to this form of fungal infection. Microsporum canis is a type of fungi that commonly infects cats. This type of fungus can be easily transmitted to other animals and to humans. It is strongly recommended to avoid physical contact with animals that show signs of disease in order to prevent contamination with infectious fungal elements. Also, if you own a dog or a cat, ensure that your pet is not contaminated with dermatophytes by paying regular visits to a veterinary.

Ringworm can affect virtually any region of the body. Hands and feet are very exposed to fungal infection and dermatophytes often infect these body parts. Although it commonly affects skin, ringworm can also affect nails and scalp. Ringworm involves inflammation, rash and swelling of the skin, scalp, soft tissue and nails. Rash is usually the first sign that indicates the presence of fungal infections. Skin lesions may also appear in later stages of the disease. If the infection spreads through the deeper layers of the skin it can cause pustules and painful nodules. A hardened crust often forms on the surface of the affected skin. Common symptoms of ringworm are persistent itching, soreness and irritation.

Ringworm of the scalp appears in the form of pustules or pus-filled reddish bumps. Foot ringworm usually affects the skin regions between the toes. Foot ringworm appears in the form of cracked, hardened skin. The affected skin also tends to exfoliate, causing itching and soreness. Ringworm of the nails is manifested by thickening and discoloration of the nails.

It is very important to see a dermatologist if you have the symptoms of ringworm. Although it may resemble a simple rash or irritation, ringworm can cause serious complications if it is not appropriately treated. The treatment for ringworm can be prescribed in the form of oral tablets or creams and ointments for external use. The medications used in the treatment for ringworm contain antifungal material and they are usually very effective in overcoming the infection. With appropriate medical treatment, ringworm can be completely cured within a week.

The internet has changed the living habits of everyone who uses it. Since virtually, every piece of information that anyone can require is freely available on the internet, people have gotten addicted to it. Most of the parents are so caught up in their busy lives that when their children start to misbehave, they feel helpless and seek help in resolving their problems. Well, now there are online parenting classes available and a number of parents are using these classes to help them in handling their children better. The internet now also supports multimedia streaming, and psychiatrists now run online parenting classes videos on their websites.

In case you do not want to consult a child psychiatrist or join group therapy classes, or just feel shy of discussing the problems that you are having with your child, you can easily find such types of classes on the World Wide Web. On some of the sites, there is an introductory video that plays, and if you feel that the councilor can help you in solving your problems, you can sign up.

Online classes can be watched at your convenience, which is why they are gaining popularity. You are no longer bound to drive on a fixed day for a parenting class meeting. The other great advantage of online parenting classes is that all the leading councilors have their websites; therefore, you get to pick the councilor that you think is the most suitable one for you. This being able to pick a councilor of your choice is a very big convenience. The other advantage is that of privacy.

You can watch a counseling video at your convenience and you can also send emails to the councilor and get private help on any particular problem that you might be facing.

Most people who have opted for online classes have found them to be quite helpful and have helped in developing a better parent/child relationship. It is not only the convenience that has made online parenting classes popular; they are proving to be extremely beneficial even otherwise.

Most parents face problems with children and at times do not know how to handle a particular situation. They also fear that if they handle a situation incorrectly, it might adversely affect the child. Many parents turn for help to other parents in solving parent/child problems.

Some people have access to the internet but not to a parent councilor; in such cases, online parenting classes are a big help and convenience. The very fact that you can pick and choose a councilor makes the online parenting classes worthwhile and a great help for the parents in dilemma.

The online councilors reply promptly to emails; therefore, you do not have to wait very long to get sound and helpful advice from them. Another big advantage of online parenting classes is that you can set your own pace. So, you are not a member of a group who has to follow or adhere to a specific schedule. These are some of the reasons why online parenting classes have become so popular.

Several times a year I spend time trying to figure out which activities I am going to sign my kids up for at the YMCA. I spend hours poring over their booklet trying to match available activity times with the kids’ home and school schedule.

My first step is to try to remember the name of the last Ballet, gymnastics, basketball or swim class that they had finished so that I don’t mistakenly schedule them for a class they had previously taken. When I finally feel confident that I have figured that out I highlight the classes I need to sign the kids up for in the YMCA booklet and head for the YMCA, with kids in tow, to schedule their appointments. I had tried doing this over the phone in the past but was disappointed when they had scheduled my daughter for the wrong swimming class and the one I wanted her in was filled up by the time I noticed the error. So I opt for reserving the classes in person to avoid these types of mistakes, even though it is a hassle having to make this extra trip.

On the first day of my sons swimming class I noticed that the class my son was in had 12 children and one swimming instructor. This was okay, but a class at the other end of the pool had only 4 children with one instructor so they were receiving a more individualized instruction. I mentioned this observation to the woman next to me and she said that the YMCA provides a way to view the class sizes online. She went on to tell me that she views each class she is interested in and chooses the one that is least filled. It turns out that her daughter does not do well in large group settings and the online service allows her to choose a class that is better suited for her child.

I was very much intrigued by this and inquired at the front desk about viewing the YMCA class availability online. The YMCA gave me all the information I needed to log on from home and view all the classes and class sizes from home. I also found out that I could utilize the online service to view the history of which classes each of my children had completed, schedule the classes and pay for them all from home. This turned out to be a huge time saver for me and also gave me the peace of mind that the correct classes were scheduled.

I can say without a doubt that the best way to find and reserve the correct classes at the YMCA is to book them online.

It’s been public knowledge that the quality of our education around the world has been very low due to many reasons that are never heeded by our world education experts including Indonesia one of the biggest world countries whose schools and universities outnumber other world countries’ but their quality has not improved.

From my observation, interviews, teaching and lecturing at schools, colleges and universities in Indonesia, there are many factors which I think are very important to consider by our world educators in order to improve the quality of our education. There are at least 3 factors that affect the success or failure of our education: internal, external and instrumental factors. I believe that if we pay particular attention to these three factors, the quality of our education will better in terms of quality in our education.

The first factor is internal factor which refers to the learners who are learning. It includes (a) their individual interest in learning, (b) learning motivation implanted in the learners who are learning with other learners who have the same interest. This learning motivation is also influenced by several factors, that is learners’ learning ability, conditions, environmental conditions, dynamic elements in learning, and efforts of their teachers in teaching the learners in addition to other circumstances such as the learners’ physical condition, and their psychological state, their attention, attitude and learning habits, toughness in learning, social and economic stance as well as cognitive ability.

The second factor is called the external factor which is not separable from the first factor that guarantees learning outcome. This factor includes social environment where the learners, stakeholders I mean the schools or universities and the teachers and lecturers are, and those are present with the learners. The presence of other people at the time of learning should often be in line with the purposes of the learners’ activities that they should not interfere or prevent them from learning, in other words the presence of the people around the learners should be supporting their learning experience and activities, and the environment such as peers, classmates from the same and different classes, school administration/management, their teachers and other employees of the school as well as the headmasters very much influence the learning process to account for learning outcomes. Another important thing which is also related to the success of learning is the curriculum, the course structure, and the infrastructure available as means or media of learning as well as teachers as designers of learning and those are surely guaranteed for learning outcomes supported by devices or tools that are ready at hand that have to be well designed in such a way that they will meet the requirements of the learning activities.

In conclusion, those are the two very important factors which account for the success of learning we as world educators and education stakeholders should pay attention to in order to guarantee success in our world education.

John Ruskin (1819 -1900) was an English art critic and social thinker, also remembered as a poet and artist. He wrote a number of essays on art and architecture that became extremely influential in the Victorian era. He takes material for his lecture “Work” from the existing economic revolution which is generally referred to as “Industrial Revolution”. Apart from its advantages and benefits it brought a great destruction for the poor people. The writer reveals the general facts and harsh realities which were ignored even by those who themselves were the main victim of revolution.

What is Working Class?

Ruskin, in the very beginning, is going to clarify the matter that what it is meant by “working class”. Most probably it is the opposite of “idle class”. Then “idle class” will be the synonym of “upper class”. At this point, Ruskin asks question to his audience whether he is correct in drawing this distinction or not. The question is asked only with the intention to gain the sympathy of his audience so that to convince them about his own arguments.

Then, he rejects the above mentioned distinction because the idle people may be found in both rich and poor classes. There is a working class among both rich and poor and there is also an idle class among both rich and poor. So the distinction between working class and upper class has been proved to be wrong. As the topic of his lecture is work, the writer sticks to the working class. He draws organized distinction between the two classes in various respects. The following are the major distinctions vividly drawn by the author.

First Distinction

This distinction is between two classes; those who work and those who play. It can be understood easily after knowing the difference between work and play. “Play” has been derided for the purpose of pleasure with no determined end while work is something totally different which is intended to earn benefit and is done with some determined end. The writer critically analyzes some popular work of England that are worthy to be called “games”.

“The first English game is making money”

This is an ironical statement for those who earn money blindly. Such people don’t know why they are earning money and what they will do with it? They are in fact players, playing the game of minting money. The aristocratic ladies of his time were also indulging in the most expensive game of “dressing”. Ruskin satirically encodes their behaviour saying these are the “poor women” with no proper clothing. Had the garment-budget of these ladies distributed among the poor people of third world, it would have sufficed them to fulfill their basic needs. However, the distinction between work and play is not exclusively mutual; a single thing can be equally “work” and “play” according to its primary and secondary purposes.

Second Distinction

The writer draws another distinction between the rich and poor. The first spends a large amount of money even on cheap and ordinary things while the latter has to endeavor his basic needs.

Ruskin quotes two instances from a newspaper. The first says that in Russia a man of good fortune entered into a hotel to take his breakfast. He paid there fifteen francs only for two peaches. The second story states the miserable state of a dead person whose body was lying on a dung heap with no person paying any heed towards him only because he belongs to the poor class. Some dried pieces of “bones” were taken out of his pocket thus intensifying the misery of the poor person.

Lawful Bases of Wealth

The lawful basis of wealth is that a worker should be paid a fair amount of his work and he should also be given liberty regarding his money; whether spends or saves for some rainy day. After implementing this law in a true sense there would be no “poor person” except for those lazy people who stay at home lazily instead of doing some work. Such kind of poor are doubly poor; lacking not only worldly possessions but also the moral strength. Those who follow this law are real rich irrespective of money they have in their possessions.

False Base of Minting Money

Duty is the main thing that should be given priority. Those who cares more about their salary or fee than the work they have been assigned, though, can become rich but on the false basis. Ruskin critically refers to such kind of people terming them “uneducated class”, “inferior in intellect” and “coward”. At this point Ruskin has proved his philosophy by giving an analogy. He says the primary purpose of a soldier’s life must be to win battles. Similarly teaching goodness should be the sole purpose of a clergyman’s life. Both of these persons are paid well for their duties but that is at secondary level. If this becomes their primary objective then they would be “coward” and “stupid”.

Third distinction

Some people work with their hands while some other with their brains. There is rough work to be done, and rough men must do it. There is also gentle work to be done and gentle men must do it. Both works are important in that the maintenance of life depends on manual as well as mental work. Every person should do honestly his own job, mental or physical.

Nevertheless it is a true fact that the dignity of labour and hard work is recognized only by his own class. A man working in a quiet and serene room with everything comfortable is unlikely to be aware of the hardships of train-drivers who have to drive against cruel winds with no difference of day and night in their life.

The rough work is generally honest, real and useful whereas the gentle work often accompanies dishonesty and cheating. When both the works are worthily done the head’s is noble work and the hand’s is ignorable. Again Ruskin criticizes the rich class who persistently thinks of providing relief and comfort to the working class but do nothing practically.

The essay tells us that both kinds of work should be done properly but he problem surfaces when people don’t work willingly. The main reason of this attitude is they don’t know which work they can do better. This “will” can be promoted only when they select the appropriate profession in accordance with their ability. Ruskin says, “in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work”.

The family is a basic unit of the society which consists of the husband, wife and their children. Each of these members has their assigned roles and responsibilities. Within a family, everyone assumes these roles. Talking about these roles and responsibilities, it is important to note the following key points:

• One of the most important responsibilities of a family is raising a child. It is the most challenging responsibility because the child has to be raised from childhood till he/she is old enough to take care of him/herself.

• The family is also expected to educate and transmit the societal norms and culture to its offspring and also give them a position or status in life.

• The family provides emotional, psychological moral and material support to members.

• The family has to ensure provision of.physical security in terms of food, clothing, shelter and other needs to its offspring or other dependent individual members of the family e.g grandparents. However, tradition still believes in assigning specific roles to each family member.

Examples of roles and responsibilities of each family member include:

Father

• Provision of food, shelter and money for the family

• Making important decisions.

Mother

• Preparing food and keeping the house in order

• Nurturing and raising the children, teaching the children morals and values

It is important to note that the above roles and any other traditional roles assigned to either parent could be performed by any of the parents. Indeed, both parents are to compliment each other in the performance of all these functions.

Each of these roles is accorded a status. The status assigned to a particular role within the family reflects the values and beliefs of that family. The higher the status assigned to a role, the greater the authority, privileges and reward accorded to that role.

Consumer behavior refers to the selection, purchase and consumption of goods and services for the satisfaction of their wants. There are different processes involved in the consumer behavior. Initially the consumer tries to find what commodities he would like to consume, then he selects only those commodities that promise greater utility. After selecting the commodities, the consumer makes an estimate of the available money which he can spend. Lastly, the consumer analyzes the prevailing prices of commodities and takes the decision about the commodities he should consume. Meanwhile, there are various other factors influencing the purchases of consumer such as social, cultural, personal and psychological. The explanation of these factors is given below.

1. Cultural Factors

Consumer behavior is deeply influenced by cultural factors such as: buyer culture, subculture, and social class.

• Culture

Basically, culture is the part of every society and is the important cause of person wants and behavior. The influence of culture on buying behavior varies from country to country therefore marketers have to be very careful in analyzing the culture of different groups, regions or even countries.

• Subculture

Each culture contains different subcultures such as religions, nationalities, geographic regions, racial groups etc. Marketers can use these groups by segmenting the market into various small portions. For example marketers can design products according to the needs of a particular geographic group.

• Social Class

Every society possesses some form of social class which is important to the marketers because the buying behavior of people in a given social class is similar. In this way marketing activities could be tailored according to different social classes. Here we should note that social class is not only determined by income but there are various other factors as well such as: wealth, education, occupation etc.

2. Social Factors

Social factors also impact the buying behavior of consumers. The important social factors are: reference groups, family, role and status.

• Reference Groups

Reference groups have potential in forming a person attitude or behavior. The impact of reference groups varies across products and brands. For example if the product is visible such as dress, shoes, car etc then the influence of reference groups will be high. Reference groups also include opinion leader (a person who influences other because of his special skill, knowledge or other characteristics).

• Family

Buyer behavior is strongly influenced by the member of a family. Therefore marketers are trying to find the roles and influence of the husband, wife and children. If the buying decision of a particular product is influenced by wife then the marketers will try to target the women in their advertisement. Here we should note that buying roles change with change in consumer lifestyles.

• Roles and Status

Each person possesses different roles and status in the society depending upon the groups, clubs, family, organization etc. to which he belongs. For example a woman is working in an organization as finance manager. Now she is playing two roles, one of finance manager and other of mother. Therefore her buying decisions will be influenced by her role and status.

3. Personal Factors

Personal factors can also affect the consumer behavior. Some of the important personal factors that influence the buying behavior are: lifestyle, economic situation, occupation, age, personality and self concept.

• Age

Age and life-cycle have potential impact on the consumer buying behavior. It is obvious that the consumers change the purchase of goods and services with the passage of time. Family life-cycle consists of different stages such young singles, married couples, unmarried couples etc which help marketers to develop appropriate products for each stage.

• Occupation

The occupation of a person has significant impact on his buying behavior. For example a marketing manager of an organization will try to purchase business suits, whereas a low level worker in the same organization will purchase rugged work clothes.

• Economic Situation

Consumer economic situation has great influence on his buying behavior. If the income and savings of a customer is high then he will purchase more expensive products. On the other hand, a person with low income and savings will purchase inexpensive products.

• Lifestyle

Lifestyle of customers is another import factor affecting the consumer buying behavior. Lifestyle refers to the way a person lives in a society and is expressed by the things in his/her surroundings. It is determined by customer interests, opinions, activities etc and shapes his whole pattern of acting and interacting in the world.

• Personality

Personality changes from person to person, time to time and place to place. Therefore it can greatly influence the buying behavior of customers. Actually, Personality is not what one wears; rather it is the totality of behavior of a man in different circumstances. It has different characteristics such as: dominance, aggressiveness, self-confidence etc which can be useful to determine the consumer behavior for particular product or service.

4. Psychological Factors

There are four important psychological factors affecting the consumer buying behavior. These are: perception, motivation, learning, beliefs and attitudes.

• Motivation

The level of motivation also affects the buying behavior of customers. Every person has different needs such as physiological needs, biological needs, social needs etc. The nature of the needs is that, some of them are most pressing while others are least pressing. Therefore a need becomes a motive when it is more pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction.

• Perception

Selecting, organizing and interpreting information in a way to produce a meaningful experience of the world is called perception. There are three different perceptual processes which are selective attention, selective distortion and selective retention. In case of selective attention, marketers try to attract the customer attention. Whereas, in case of selective distortion, customers try to interpret the information in a way that will support what the customers already believe. Similarly, in case of selective retention, marketers try to retain information that supports their beliefs.

• Beliefs and Attitudes

Customer possesses specific belief and attitude towards various products. Since such beliefs and attitudes make up brand image and affect consumer buying behavior therefore marketers are interested in them. Marketers can change the beliefs and attitudes of customers by launching special campaigns in this regard.

A tendency to judge that speech is only an instrument for making statements is rather primitive. Some people forget that there are a lot of different possibilities. The way we speak also expresses our emotions, attitude to people interrelations between the audience and the speaker.

Sometimes it is necessary to guide people, to warn them or to show somebody’s disapproval or approval or to make your speech sound more enthusiastic or encouraging. We should take all these into consideration while investigating the lexical meaning of words. Using such terms as “emotive” or “expressive”; “affective” or “evaluative”, some people think they are synonyms, for example, that an emotive word is of necessity also a stylistically colored word, or considering all stylistically colored words as emotional. But that is not the case.

So, let us agree that so-called emotive speech is any utterance expressing different human emotions. It is easy to find in speech a great number of syntactical, lexical and intonational peculiarities. Thus, by lexical peculiarities I mean special, emotionally colored words. The emotional coloring of the word may be occasional or permanent. Let us focus on the second. Lexical units acquire their emotional coloring, in other words, their affective connotation, in emotional contexts of particular situations.

The most common type of emotional words, as it seems to me, are interjections. The fact is that they express a lot of emotions without naming them: Ouch! My! Boy! Heaven! Wow! Ah! etc. The interjections may be derived from other parts of speech or be primary interjections. For example, if you describe something as a “drag”, what do you mean? It is boring, too difficult or physically exhausting? Certainly, something that is annoying or boring. We can find a lot of emotional words in everyday small talks or in the literature: ” I love Sibyl Vane. I want to place her on a pedestal of gold, and to see the world worship the woman who is mine. What is marriage? An irrevocable vow. You mock at it for that. Ah! don’t mock.” ( Oscar Wild “The Picture of Dorian Gray” Moscow Progress Publishers 1979 Volume One, page 170)

To express irritation, mockery or any other emotions the speech should possess some special traits, that would show the audience that the speaker’s emotions are very strong. The traditional word order is not used in such cases, but one can obviously find the inversion. More to that, very interesting and vivid examples of echo-conversations can be found in everyday spoken speech. Sometimes it sounds really amusing: “Why should I… ?” – “Stop why-should-I-ing!” or “Oh, come on!”- “Don’t come-on-me!” These are examples of mockery back-chat. It is funny to find brand new words like “why-should-I-ing” invented by the speaker in the moment of utter irritation. This type of emotional speech is definitely increasing in the speech of young people today, as the native speakers assume.

The emotionally colored words are opposed to the emotionally neutral ones. These words actually express notions (It is the so-called nominating function) but they fail to express the speaker’s emotions or his attitude towards people or the speaker’s mood. However, sometimes it is very difficult to tell the sets as they are not very distinguishing, there are a lot of mixed cases. Some of them may possess traits that belong to both. Many words are definitely neutral in their primary, direct meaning but absolutely emotional in the certain conversation under the conditions of the context.

Another group of words may be called “evaluator-words” which contrasts in speech to the neutral words. These words, while we use them in the sentences, can not only show the presence of emotions but identify or specify them.

Just to sum up what have been mentioned I would like to underline that emphatic and emotional words do not show emotions by themselves but impact these to the whole utterance in the combination with syntactic and intonational means.